What’s good to eat Thanksgiving week is favorite no-cook food, and lite faves. I’m getting fresh home style cottage cheese from the supermercado, maybe mix with shredded carrots, capers, scallions and maybe not. I also scored a deal on mangoes and papaya chunks.http://www.elranchoinc.com/el/index.html

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I could eat sandwiches and nothing else for the rest of my life. This includes tea sandwiches and canapes. One of my most treasured tearout recipes, and the only remnant I know of of Rosie O’Donnell’s magazine, was fanciful and delicious kids’ lunchbox recipes.*

There are dozens of blogs on bento box lunches for kids which a.) are terrifying in their samurai tiger momness and b.) lack sandwiches and c.) are therefore inherently boring. Terrifying and boring is not my bag. It’s pretty much the definition of hell and in-laws, as far as I can make out.

The sandwich of all sandwiches is of course, Ernest Matthew Mickler‘s potato chip sandwich, in White Trash Cooking: “Pardie Tickette says: ‘Wash it down with a Pepsi, it’s some good!'”

The three best sandwiches I know of carry a heavy cargo of vegetables. Iceberg lettuce has its delights, basically, I think, in a wedge under homemade Iowa Maytag blue cheese dressing, but I don’t like it in sandwiches. Even shredded in tacos. (I have discussed the transcendent virtues of Sammy Gugino’s cabbage slaw for fish tacos qua Mexican cole slaw. I think pretty much every taco would be better with Sammy’s fish taco slaw instead of limp iceberg.)

I once had a discussion over at LiveJournal on the very best sandwiches of all time. The very best were concocted by a Sinophile from New Orleans, who added mint or coriander to every sandwich as a matter of principle — learned, I think I recall, from her shrimp-fishing Vietnamese neighbors on the bayou.

You know that banh mi sandwiches, with French bread, Vietnamese pickled vegetables and grilled meat or pate, the aforementioned mint or coriander, are the best sandwiches in the universe.

Here is Gourmet magazine’s recipe for a chicken and liverwurst banh mi:

Aside from the incredibly delicious daikon/carrot slaw, and the combination of liverwurst and chicken the very idea of which makes me swoon, I think the take-away genius technique of this recipe is the spreading of the bread with the oil/fish sauce/soy sauce mixture. That could make any sandwich worth eating, even a scaled-back, budget, skinny, or semi-vegetarian banh mi consisting just of slaw, coriander, and fish sauce. Mmmmm.

I do believe the flavoring on the spread, and the care with which the spread is taken to the very edge of the bread, and beyond, is the secret of a good sandwich. Just as anchovy butter is the real secret of every tea sandwich you have ever eaten, whether you know it or not, and whether or not you like anchovy, another just-let-me-die-now sekrit spread is miso mayonnaise. Oh god.

Mrs. Grieder of the famous Gay Head luncheonette in Martha’s Vineyard wouldn’t let anybody else make her lobster rolls, according to Louise Tate King. The secret was — aside from buckets of hour-old lobster — carefully spreading the hot dog roll to its edge with butter, and grilling it very slowly. Add lots of finely minced celery, and a touch of grated onion if you’re feeling less Puritan, mayo, and the lobster.

Almost as delicious are my two candidates for Healthy Lunch Meat, one from the late Griffin Market, at 28th and P in Georgetown, and one I ganked from the over-explanatory food-trendy menu at Cafe Lula in Chicago.

The late, great Griffin Market in D. C..

The Griffin Market one isn’t particularly calorie- or budget-conscious, so I save it for very special occasions. The Cafe Lula one I save to eat until there are real tomatoes ripening on the vine. It’s a summer sammie.

Pitza Kit:
Pack sauce in container with lid. Pack in insulated lunch box with ice pack, along with other kit ingredients, each wrapped separately. Spread 1 Tbsp sauce over each pita; top with cheese and pepperoni.

Cook pasta following package directions; drain in colander. Rinse under cold water, drain. In bowl, toss pasta with remaining ingreds until evenly coated. Can be made 1 day ahead and refrigerated. Pack in insulated etc.

Place all ingredients in blender. Process until thick and smooth. Pour into 2-cup plastic drinking cup with tight-fitting lid and built in straw. Refrig until ready to pack in lunch box. Pack in insulated etc.

Preheat oven to 325. Line a 13 by 9 by 2 in baking pan with foil, extending foil 2 in beyond each short side of the pan; lightly coat foil with cooking spray. In large bowl, combine all ingreds for bars until evenly moistened and blended. Spoon granola mixture into prepared baking pan; firmly press mixture to form compact, even layer.
BAke for 45 minutes, turning pan 180 degrees on over rack once, halfway through baking, or until top is golden brown. L:et bar cool in pan on wire rack.
Carefully remove bar from baking pan by lifting ends of aluminum foil; carfefully peel off foil from bottom of bar. Transfer bar to cutting board. Cut bar lengthwise into 6 long strips; cut each strip cross-wise into 4 bars. (Can be stored in air tight container at room temp for up to 3 days.)

On work surface, arrange 1 slice ham and 1 slice cheese, both slices lengthwise and overlapping, so combination slice is about 5 inches long. Top with another 1 slice each ham and cheese, putting ham over bottom cheese slice and cheese over bottom ham slice. Place one straw at bottom left edge of stack on diagonal; roll stack around straw. Wrap in plastic. Repeat with remaining ham, cheese, and straw. Pack in insulated etc.

On one bread slice, spread 1 T peanut butter evenly, all the way to the edge; spread with jam. Spread the remaining peanut butter on second slice of bread; top with banana slices, then spread evenly with Nutella. Place on top of peanut-butter and jam slice, banana side up. Top with remaining bread slice for triple-decker sandwich. With a serrated knife, cut sandwich into quarters. Wrap in foil. Pack in insulated, etc.

Open coating carton. Microwave on medium power 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds with rubber spatula until melted and smooth. Dip fruit into coating halfway, letting excess drip back into container. Place on waxed paper; let stand until hardened, about 15 minutes. (Dipped fruit can be refrig up to 2 days.) Let remaining coating cool and harden in container; cover with lid (can be remelted and used for more dipping). Pack dipped fruit in shallow 2 cup plastic container with tight-fitting lid. Pack in insulated, etc.